Here are five things to watch out for when the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks meet at 7:30 p.m. tonight at TD Garden.
Tonight's contest marks Boston's final tune-up of the preseason. That should mean an increase in minutes for the team's starters.
Avery Bradley, who logged 28 minutes against Charlotte on Oct. 6 and 26 minutes against Brooklyn on Oct. 13, is the only Celtics starter who has played more than 24 minutes during any of the team's six preseason games. Surely, Brad Stevens wants his top guns to feel the burn of regular-season minutes before Opening Night.
Tonight will be the final opportunity for them to do so. None of the starters played more than 18 minutes Monday night, and the team will not play another game until its Oct. 26 opener. That means they're set up perfectly to log 30 or more minutes tonight against New York.
Derrick Rose will miss his fourth consecutive preseason game tonight due to his involvement in a civil trial in Los Angeles. The only game he has played in this preseason was New York's first exhibition contest more than two weeks ago, during which he scored 16 points and dished out five assists.
It is likely that Rose will miss the remainder of New York's preseason schedule. Its final game is scheduled for tomorrow against the Nets in Brooklyn.
Brandon Jennings will start in Rose's place should the Knicks play their starters. Jennings has averaged 7.5 points and 3.8 assists per game during four preseason contests.
Jaylen Brown is no longer enrolled at the University of California, Berkeley. However, his education has continued.
Brown faced off against one of his idols, Carmelo Anthony, Saturday night in New York. Anthony, a career 24.9-PPG scorer, got the best of the youngster on multiple occasions, but Brown viewed the defensive assignment as an opportunity to learn.
“It was a good experience, especially against someone you grew up watching,” Brown said after the game. “It was an educational experience.”
These two should be matched up yet again at some point during tonight's game if Anthony plays. This will be an opportunity for us all to see how Brown puts his lessons to use.
Kristaps Porzingis is already one of the most difficult matchups in the league despite the fact that he's only entering his second season. At 7-foot-3, and blessed with impressive athleticism and deep range, Porzingis can do it all.
Amir Johnson and Al Horford spent much of Saturday night defending Porzingis in New York. However, Stevens opted to throw his secret weapon at Porzingis as well.
At times, 6-foot-4 Marcus Smart was assigned to defend Porzingis. This is a tactic that Stevens used during last year's regular season as well.
It would be safe to assume that the C's will again throw multiple looks at Porzingis tonight in their attempt to contain the talented big man.
No one – and we mean no one – expected Mindaugas Kuzminskas to lead both teams in scoring when the Celtics and Knicks met Saturday night. Yet he did.
Kuzminskas was outstanding during 19 minutes of action, scoring a game-high 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting. The Lithuanian forward was an energy-giver and made some legitimate plays both on the perimeter and on the interior. He almost single-handedly brought the Knicks back into contention for a win during the second half.
Needless to say, Boston's frontline reserves will need to do a much better job of slowing Kuzminskas down tonight. Those defensive duties will likely fall on the shoulders of Jonas Jerebko, Gerald Green and Jordan Mickey.
